Is directing an art? Do directors need to be trained? What do directors actually do? These questions and more are answered in this accessibly written survey of the art of theatre direction. Its broad scope ranges across the theatres of both America and Europe, looking at practices from Stanislavski up to the present day.

Direction: Readings in Theatre Practice (Readings in Theatre Practice, 16)

Shepherd, Simon

Humor & Entertainment

Red Globe Press

Analyzes the roles of both strong-minded and antagonistic women in the plays of seventeenth-century English authors including Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Dekker

Amazons and Warrior Women: Varieties of Feminism in Seventeenth Century Drama

St.Martin's Press

Studying Plays

This is an accessible and lively introduction to the essential tools for studying a dramatic text. Looking at the four key areas--dialogue, action, character, and space--the book focuses on the specifically dramatic aspects of plays, rather than on purely literary or theoretical concerns. Looking in detail at Death of a Salesman, A Doll's House, and King Lear among many others, the authors set the dramatic texts in their historical context, paying attention to the significance of particular theater buildings, actors, and audiences. Exercises at the end of each section and a glossary will help anyone wanting to learn more about drama.

Wallis, Mick

Literature & Fiction

Hodder Education Publishers

How should we study drama? What possibilities (and limitations) does the genre present? Beginning with an examination of "A Dolls House", the conventions of which frame much "serious" television drama, the book goes on to explore issues of characterisation, of transmission from page to stage,of authorship and the construction and deconstruction of the genre. It considers the uses (and abuses) of "space" and in a final chapter examines the varieties and functions of play. Complex ideas and technical terms are introduced in a way that will give the reader a secure preliminaryunderstanding, with constant reference to a range of plays and to their dramatic interpretation helping firmly to embed this knowledge.

The new edition of this standard textbook has been revised and expanded in response to lecturers' comments. It provides a comprehensive introduction to play texts, and looks at key elements of drama such as character, dialogue, plot, action, the body, and space. The book also discusses theatricality and sets drama in its historical context. Drawing on examples from King Lear, A Doll's House, Waiting for Godot, and The Tempest among others, the textbook is suitable for beginning students of drama. The book is part of the series that includes Studying the Novel and Studying Poetry. Mick Wallis is Professor of Performance and Culture at the University of Leeds, UK Simon Shepherd is a Professor at The Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK The new edition of this standard textbook has been revised and expanded in response to lecturers' comments. It provides a comprehensive introduction to play texts, and looks at key elements of drama such as character, dialogue, plot, action, the body, and space. The book also discusses theatricality and sets drama in its historical context. Drawing on examples from King Lear, A Doll's House, Waiting for Godot, and The Tempest among others, the textbook is suitable for beginning students of drama. The book is part of the series that includes Studying the Novel and Studying Poetry. "Comprehensive, thoughtful and accessibly written."—Research in Drama Education "Comprehensive, thoughtful and accessibly written."—Research in Drama Education

Dramas & Plays

Bloomsbury USA

Studying Plays is a comprehensive introduction to understanding plays which examines and explains the key elements of drama such as character, dialogue, plot, action, the body and space, and draws on classic and contemporary plays. Key Features:
<li>The essential guide to drama for people approaching it for the first time. </li>
<li>New to this edition is a discussion of "design-led" text which explains how to read a scripted play while being fully open to the impact of design. </li>
<li>A new section on "post-dramatic" text is included to illuminate the best way to approach this difficult area which now forms part of many drama modules. </li>
<li>New also is an examination of "in-yer-face" theatre—a re-invention of the writer's theatre which engages with the effects of the "real" and appeals to young people. </li>
<li>Exercises throughout the book enable the reader to expand his or her analytical and creative abilities. </li>

History & Criticism

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde, 1900-1925 unearths an extensive range of hitherto forgotten or ignored theatre practices. In doing so it reveals some of the well-known figures of the early twentieth-century English theatre in a strikingly new light. It fluently describes an intensity of innovation and experiment that together made the Edwardian theatre rather more radical, and rather more queer, than we've ever thought.Where the majority of writing on the early twentieth-century theatrical avant-garde is concerned with European movements and experiments, English activity of the period is often seen as parochial and conservative - mainly realism and issues-based drama. This book presents a new model of how avant-gardes might work; a model based not on masculine individualism but on communal inclusion. In describing this fascinating material, the author introduces us to many new figures and shows familiar ones in different ways: there's Florence Farr, independent woman; Bob Trevelyan, radical pacifist and music drama pioneer; Granville Barker doing fairy plays while de-dramatising drama; Laurence Housman, socialist, homosexual, scripting St Francis; and the oddly modern J.M. Barrie. Together they made theatre practices rich in their diversity but consistent in their attempt to be new, producing a theatrical avant-garde unlike any other.This is a vital and indispensable new study for scholars and students of early twentieth-century theatre in England and beyond.

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde 1900-1925

Routledge

Spenser (Harvester New Readings)

Literary

Humanities Pr

Drama/Theatre/Performance (The New Critical Idiom)

What is implied when we refer to the study of performing arts as 'drama', 'theatre' or 'performance'? Each term identifies a different tradition of thought and offers different possibilities to the student or practitioner. This book examines the history and use of the terms and investigates the different philosophies, politics, languages and institutions with which they are associated. Simon Shepherd and Mick Wallis:  analyze attitudes to drama, theatre and performance at different historical junctures trace a range of political interventions into the field(s) explore and contextualise the institutionalisation of drama and theatre as university subjects, then the emergence of 'performance' as practice, theory and academic disciplines guide readers through major approaches to drama, theatre and performance, from theatre history, through theories of ritual or play, to the idea of performance as paradigm for a postmodern age discuss crucial terms such as action, alienation, catharsis, character, empathy, interculturalism, mimesis, presence or representation in a substantial 'keywords' section. Continually linking their analysis to wider cultural concerns, the authors here offer the most wide-ranging and authoritative guide available to a vibrant, fast-moving field and vigorous debates about its nature, purpose and place in the academy.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shepherd, Simon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shepherd, Simon

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shepherd, Simon. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Direction: Readings in Theatre Practice (Readings in Theatre Practice, 16)

Amazons and Warrior Women: Varieties of Feminism in Seventeenth Century Drama

Studying Plays

Studying Plays

Studying Plays

Studying Plays

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde 1900-1925

The English Theatrical Avant-Garde 1900-1925

Spenser (Harvester New Readings)

Drama/Theatre/Performance (The New Critical Idiom)